A Shorebird in the Mountains - More Common than we Knew!

About a month or so ago on our walk down the driveway, Jim and I noticed an adorable bird. She would run ahead of us as if to say, "follow me." We both figured she was leading us away from her nest. But what was most striking is we both thought she looked and sounded like a shore bird, a plover. We thought, how could a bird get that lost? So I finally got close enough to take a photo and spent some time on the internet and guess what, our bird is a shore bird - and a plover. She's a killdeer. And fortunately she is not endangered.

And the killdeer is said to be found away from the shore and loves pastures, golf courses and parking lots. So, not surprising she is in our horse and cow pasture. And she has BABIES!!

We just love these birds. Her sound is pleasing and reminds me of the beach. She also feigns injury to distract us from her babies. This is what she looks like when she does that:

Among the miracles of nature are the migration of the turtles to lay their eggs. They emerge from swampy bogs, make their way across highways, roadways and other perilous paths to find a sandy, dry place to lay their eggs. I find this fascinating. She lays her eggs and goes bck to the swamp. When the turtles hatch they are hard-wired to find the swamp and their mom - how cool is that?

Here's one of those pre-historic looking snapping turtles laying eggs on our driveway: